About Shelby Hofer

Actor | Director | Writer | Comedian

Shelby is an American actor, director, writer and comedian. She is also a producer, and Co-founder/director of the award-winning PushPush Film & Theater, where she develops distinctive opportunities for artists to take risks, explore new ideas and collaborate across the globe. In addition to her noted stage and film work at PushPush, she has appeared on many stages locally, nationally and internationally.

In addition to heading up an exchange program between Atlanta and Berlin, her work is bi-coastal. In 2013 she performed in a premiere production by Guy Zimmerman, The Black Glass in Atlanta, Los Angeles and Berlin. In 2014 She toured in a follow-up production by Zimmerman, The Hillary Game in Los Angeles and Atlanta. Supported by a 2012 NEA Media Arts grant, Shelby and her partner Tim Habeger are developing two digital episodics, loosely based on their experiences at PushPush producing over 900 shows, incubating as many artists, and pioneering some of Atlanta’s groundbreaking arts programs such as Dailies Filmmakers, the Portal International Exchange, the Artistic Planning Program, SmallTall Theater, and CultivateATL.

Her 2009-2011 performances of the solo show 101 Humiliating Stories garnered numerous awards including one of the Top 50 Shows of the Decade and a Best Actress award from Creative Loafing in 2010. She is a three-time champion with original work and publications at Write Club Atlanta, and has orated her stories at numerous literary events, including Carapace and Naked City. Her work also includes film, directing, teaching, writing and stand-up comedy.

In 2012 she was chosen for an Idea Capital grant to support the development of the script for a unique visual art/theater hybrid, See Through, a “walk-through” production about an overly curious tween at an adult party.

Shelby met her partner, PushPush Artistic Director Tim Habeger, in 1996 while performing in the first of more than nine subsequent productions by Padua Playwright’s Murray Mednick (LA). In 1997 they founded PushPush in Atlanta with a mission is to incubate and develop distinctive global opportunities for artistic growth among artists at all levels. They offered the outcomes to audiences through a range of innovative programming.

Shelby and Tim have garnered numerous grants and awards for their leadership including Turner Voices, the Home Depot Foundation award for Innovation and Collaboration, Lexus Leaders of the Arts from PBA Atlanta, The Theatre Communications Group, The Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta, Metropolitan Atlanta Arts Fund, The Consulate General of the Federal Republic of Germany, Goethe Zentrum, The Tanne Foundation, the AEC Trust, and more.